


The Ocean Breathes Salty

by moss_mostmagnifique



Category: Blaseball (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Man Door Hand Hook Car Door, Not sure whether or not there's majot character death, and it is heavily implied, but it is discussed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 21:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30028275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moss_mostmagnifique/pseuds/moss_mostmagnifique
Summary: Axel Cardenas, hitter for the CDMX Wild Wings, goes on his first in-person date with the infamous Tillman Henderson.
Relationships: Axel Cardenas/Tillman Henderson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	The Ocean Breathes Salty

The center of the 2,000 mile journey from New Jersey to Mexico City was a place not too far from Jackson, Mississippi. It could have taken Axel Cardenas twenty-four hours of driving to get out there, and Tillman Henderson a little over that to hitchhike. Instead, Cardenas went to Virginia, driving long nights, leaving the windows open to breath the heavy humidity in the air. He hadn’t driven that often before. He hadn’t needed to, or wanted to. There was never somewhere to go to that he couldn’t drift to more passively, or that wouldn’t go to him. Driving at all, in fact, was his idea. Tillman complained about it. It was inefficient, it was slow, and it didn’t mean anything. Also, he complained that Axel kept getting lost, and that a 32-hour trip should not take a week.

Maybe he was right, but as Axel watched the sun fall past the horizon, as he took off his sunglasses for the third time this week, just like he had yesterday, and the day before, and not for weeks before that, as he rolled down the window and felt the heavy air against his heavy head, and took another drink of his sugar-free Rockstar, the one that he’d been carrying around for months but never drank… He sighed. His Rockstar had probably gone flat three months ago. He should have bought a new one.

Axel Cardenas watched the sun set for the third time in the past five years, and he thought about Sports, and Horne, and. Miguel. Miguel Wheeler. It would be proud of him, he thought, but people always thought things like that. It would be happy he’s gotten better, sure. It’d be fucking _furious_ if it saw anything that happened before then. 

Axel Cardenas put his sunglasses back on, and continued down the highway, and the sun went down, and the sun came back up. He pulled over a couple of times to get some rest, told anyone who worried about it that he had called to get a tow truck, that it’d be there in a long time, that he had a specific company his car needed to go through. That wasn’t completely wrong, actually. Summers used to take part-time jobs at mechanic shops, do minor fixes and all that, and one day, over a decade ago, she, Mullen, and Fran decided to fix up his car into something _really_ special. They did a good job. At the very least, they let him get away with napping.

Axel Cardenas reached the place towards the evening of the next day, some little place named “Chadd’s Ford”. Funny. He parked by a place that looks like it used to be a flea market, the kind that was almost too upscale for you to call it that, but never pulled in enough money to mean much. He stepped out, checked his reflection in the car window, then on the bright red chrome-style paint. Man. Every time he looked at his car, it looked better. He wished he could say the same about himself. He looked like he got pushed down some stairs. He tried to slick back his hair, but he didn’t have enough pomade left. He didn’t have water, either. He looked around. Left, right, up, inside any nearby windows. He poured a little bit of flat Rockstar into his hand and ran it through his hair. 

“Hey, man. You doing alright?”

Axel stood bolt upright, and made a concerted effort not to turn around. He carefully put the Rockstar down, and carefully picked his shades up, and leaned against the car.

“You’re facing the wrong way, dumbass.”

Axel Cardenas was facing the wrong way. He would have buried his face in his hands, if that were not immensely uncool. He sort-of slid his arms across the car roof to turn around. It was almost smooth. If his expression were confident enough, Tillman would think he did it on purpose, and that it was cool and charming and impressive.

“Your hands are shaking, you good? Gonna faint? Gonna die?”

Axel sighed.

“Long week.”

“Good.” Tillman paused. He pulled the front of his shirt partially over his face. His shirt was airbrushed with a wraparound landscape featuring several wizards, ancient and grizzled, faces contorted into agony as they shot fire or lightning or poison or whatever at each other. One of them was Spongebob. He did it without thinking, without pausing to analyze what it said about him. He was wearing a mall-kiosk shirt from hell to their first in-person date, their first in-person date that took Axel a week to drive to. 

“You look _incredible_ , Tillman.”

Tillman laughed, or maybe he coughed, and put his arm over Cardenas’ shoulder. Well, the second attempt, he did. On the first attempt, he misjudged the height, and hit him in the back of the head.

“So, Axe, what’s the plan? Gonna go see a painting, blow something up?’

“I-” He quirks his eyebrow, makes sure he doesn’t stutter. “thought you were in charge of that, dude.”

“Yeah. That’s why you’re doin’ it. My choice is that you choose. Wanna drive back?”

“Pff, yeah. I think a week in a car with _you_ would kill me.” He paused, tried to smooth back his hair again. 

“Honestly, Tillman, I wanna go driving again. It was like _nothing_ else, being out there, windows down, all that. Don’t mind?”

“Hell no. I’m down for stupid bullshit, else I wouldn’ta let you get over here! Lemme in the car.”

Tillman sat down, pulled a sandwich out of his pocket, and immediately began eating it.

Axel yelled something that he wasn’t sure was coherent, but was sure was profane, and nearly pushed him out of the car.

Tillman stood up. “No eating?”

Axel ran his hands through his hair. “Yea-a-a-a-a-ah, no eating. I- uh-”

Axel ran his hands through his hair.

“You put a lot of effort into making your car look nice?” Tillman wiped the crumbs off himself, tore up the sandwich and threw the pieces across the lot, brushed the seat, ate the crumbs he scooped up, and sat down. “It’s impressive. It’s-” Tillman leaned to the driver seat. “ _Real_ cool. Come on. You wanna drive? See the sights? Let’s try that. No sights around here, but you seem fucked up in the head, so I bet you’ll love it.”

Axel smiled. Easier this time. Sat down, checked the mirror. He looked incredibly cool. He took off his jacket and turned up the heater, which Tillman narrowed his eyes at him for, huffed something about temperatures and which ones made you fuckin’ lame. Started driving. It was a scenic place, green everywhere. Some massive fields where vines and kudzu took over everything, making a living forest look like a painting of a steep hill. After the first half-hour, Axel stopped.

“Hey, you sure you’re fine just driving around? You’re not bored?”

“Ha. You keep driving. You don’t need to care about my feelings right now, honest. I’m just vibing. Your music taste’s shit.” Pause. “Compels me though.” 

“You sure?”

“Totally. Quick tip, though. Twenty more minutes, next exit east. _Bunch_ of old bullshit there, you’ll love it. Trust me.”

“Alright, sure thing- OH GOD NO. OH NO.” Axel startled, pulled over.

“FUCK’S-GOIN-ON?” Tillman looked scared. Horrified, tense, coiled. Eyes wide, fists balled so hard that it must have hurt, spine up straight. Like he knew something was going to happen, but didn’t say until now.

“Oh. Uh- I’m- uh. Really sorry. I panicked. It- uh- It’s stupid.”

“Uh- uhuh. Alright. Wh- What was it, dude? It’s- It’s- alright, I know it’s stupid now, that’s all th- uh- you know.”

Axel buried his face in his hands. “I- forgot to pop my shirt collar, and I only have the top button undone.”

Tillman leaned back in his chair, made choking noises that Axel could only assume was frenzied laughter. After some amount of time- well. After a couple of minutes that felt far, far too long, Tillman threw his arm over Axel again.

“God, man, I think if you- you freaked out over that any more I woulda combusted! Imagine- Imagine- the first player incinerated in season 14: Fan favorite Tillman Henderson. He died during the siesta, thanks to a- a _button-up_.”

They sat there for a long time. Axel didn’t say anything, stared straight ahead, cracked the knuckles on one hand, then the other, then the first, then the other. Tillman Henderson breathed deep, slow, and then, eventually, went back to normal. He didn’t say anything, though, and Axel braced himself. One hand, then the other.

_Click-click-click. Clickclick-click-click._

“Hey, are you alright? You’ve seemed _real_ on-edge this whole time. I know you’re like that, which is fucked, by the way. But you’re going overboard, huh? I can take the wheel. You’re not the only one who pretends he can’t do shit. I can drive just fine, and I’m gonna be careful with your souped-up godcar, ‘kay?.”

“Uh- uh- Yeah.” His voice cracked. He cleared his throat. “Yeah. I should relax. You sure you wanna drive?”

“Oh, hell yeah. Hold on.” They switched places. Axel thought it was going to be some sort of revenge, but Tillman meant it. He drove like someone who hadn’t ever “accidentally” crashed into five trees in as many minutes, and he kept track of the speed limits. He kept track of everything, really. Axel decided against looking into it further. Eventually, Tillman turned, looked at him.

“Vwah-lah. The ocean.”

Well, it was a river delta, but it was wide, and the other shore was too far away to see. There wasn’t any land close enough to see, not in front of them, not to the sides. The bridge’s sides dropped down to low ridges, and Axel could see what looked like the end of the earth.

“God. This is it, huh? This- it’s like… This is everything out there. As many stupid, petty things can happen to any one person as possible, but- but- this is going to stay here, and if it doesn’t something else just like it will.”

“Uh- yeah, alright.” Tillman smiled, like he won something. “Yeahh, I can see that.”

Axel started tearing up again. His eyes stung, head swam a little. He could look out and he wouldn’t see anything else, anybody else. Well, he could still see Tillman. He lowered the window. He could look out and he wouldn’t see anything else, anybody else. It was breathtaking.

“Thank you. God- _Dios_ , Tillman, thank you! This- I’ve-” Pause. “I mean, I’ve seen the ocean before. I just-” Pause.

“It means more, huh?”

“Yeah. You know, I used to think that nothing bad would ever happen to us. The worst thing that ever happened was- Larry got worse at baseball, and that’s it! I’m- never gonna see him again, or Case, or-” Pause. Again. “You know. It’s weird. I know I’m going to die.”

“Ha! Yeah. I used to get that all the time. Got better after I did and got back and only got this _fucking_ t-shirt, but… I don’t, uh, think that’s something to bank on.”

“Sure.” Axel laughed. “You know, Tillman, I think I’m starting to actually relax. Let my guard down for once in my damn life. I think it works pretty well. I’m almost half-good at blaseball, now that I understand the heart of the cards or whatever, and I think I’m ready for anything. I think I can say that ‘cause I’m not near any fields right now. Bet if I said that on the field the umps would hear it.”

“Fuckin’ animals, those guys. It’s crazy out there.”

“Yeah.”

The road was long, and the ocean was neverending until you could see the end of it. 

“Hey, Tillman, didn’t you say there was a place back out somewhere with a bunch of old stuff? Wanna go there? If it’s not closed yet, I mean. It’s kinda dark out, huh? What time is it out here?”

“No clue about the time, but _hell_ yeah. The guys there, it’s an antique place, let me blow up their old stock once it’s been in for long enough. It’s gonna be sick. Fuckin- yeah, just a minute. Now we’ve crossed the bridge it’ll be another minute to a different road to the same place, and then-”

The car sputtered, slowed, stopped.

“Hey, Axe, this supposed to do that?”

“No, I think it’s out of something. Hold- uh, wait a minute, I’ll check it out. Got a flashlight? My phone died a bit ago, and I didn’t want to keep you from charging your phone.”

“I don’t have a cellphone, are you kidding? Stupid things break when you look at them. Flip-phones too. Bullshit little buttons and batteries, probably. Also, there’s not a charger in here.”

“Alright-h-h-ht! I’ll just go by my vision, then.” He took off his sunglasses, popped the hood, checked everything out. Cracked his knuckles. He should probably stop doing that. Bad for the joints, Gonzales kept telling him. 

“Hey, I have no idea what’s wrong.”

“Nice! Is now a weird time to tell you that I think we should go on more dates?”

“Yeah. Thanks though. I mean- same. Is what I meant. You know. Stress. Fucks up with your phrasing.”

Tillman nodded. “Whatever, nerd. I know a mechanic place nearby, how about you make sure the coolguymobile stays safe, and I’ll ditch you and party with them?”

“Sounds like a plan. That last bit means you’re coming back to get this fixed, right?”

“‘Course, ba- uh. ‘Course.”

“Yeah.” Axel turned down the heating. A little. 

“Bye, I love you, sweaty, stay safe, uh- fuckin- what’s something else funny I can say? List an insult.”

“Wh-”

“No, you’re right. I’ll head out. Get some fix for your piece of shit car.” 

“Alright. Stay safe.” Axel paused. “Wait, did you say ‘sweaty’?”

“It’s a joke- I’ll explain it when I get back, alright? See if you can put it together until then, huh? Bye. ‘Night. Might be a couple hours, don’t open the door for strangers, all that.”

And he walked off, without any sort of light. At least he looked like he knew where he was going. Granted, Tillman probably needed to know where every mechanic near anywhere he went was, since he seemed to take the cubist’s artistic approach to driving.

The first hour was alright. Nothing really happened, but the car still worked just fine. Axel sang, wrote, fixed his hair with some pomade he found in the glove compartment, regretted wasting that much of his Rockstar. Wondered if his hair smelled like preservatives and artificial flavors. Regretted putting a sugary drink in his hair. After the second hour, something started scraping against the car. Outside was pitch-black, inside the car was pitch-black, and he wasn’t sure if American bears could open doors or not. Eventually, he figured he might as well get more sleep out of it. He spent all last week sleeping one hour at a time, and that couldn’t be good for somebody. The scratching continued. Axel closed his eyes, put the jacket over his head, and tried to think about the ocean. Massive, unblinking. There for longer than he would be. For longer than anybody he knew, or would ever know. He took a deep breath, turned over. As Axel fell asleep, he was sure he heard waves. 

Axel woke up when it got light. He must have pushed the jacket off of his face at some point. He looked around. No Tillman. He checked his phone. Still dead. As he unlocked the doors, he tried not to think about the scraping against the car. It sounded like metal, in his memories, but he was sleep-deprived and stressed out. He opened the car door, stepped outside. Deadly still. He looks around, listens for something. Anything. The air is more humid than he thought it would be this far north. He smelled something weird in the air, something metallic. Axel took a deep breath. Balled his fists, crept carefully behind the car, and peeked at the driver-side door. In front of him, man door hand hook car door.


End file.
